ÉPINOMIS

Whether one calls it the world, Olympus, or heaven, it matters little what name one pleases to give it, provided that, by rising to the true contemplation of this God, one observes how he presents himself in a thousand varied forms, imparts movement to the stars he contains, and gives birth to revolutions, the seasons, life, the various branches of knowledge including that of number, and all other goods, the greatest of which is without contradiction this science of number, when one knows how to use it to explain the entire celestial order.

But let us retrace our steps for a moment to recall with what truth we thought that if one were to take number away from humanity, one would make all prudence impossible. Indeed, the soul of the animal that would be deprived of reason would be incapable of ever reuniting all the virtues. Ignorant of what two and three are, of the even and the odd—in a word, having no idea of number—it will never be in a state to give an account of anything, knowing it only through the senses and memory. Nothing prevents it from having the other virtues, such as strength and temperance; but, deprived of true reason, it will never become wise, and whoever does not have wisdom, which is the principal part of all virtue, cannot become perfectly good and consequently cannot attain happiness. It is therefore of absolute necessity that number serve as the foundation for everything else. To explain it, one would have to enter into developments more extensive than everything that has been said up to now; but what can be best said for the moment is that, of all the arts of which we have made the enumeration—while gladly granting them the name of arts—there is not one that could subsist, not one that would not perish entirely, if one were to take away the science of number. By looking only at the arts, one might believe